D&D 5E [Merged] Candlekeep Mysteries Author Speaks Out On WotC's Cuts To Adventure

In an event which is being referred to as #PanzerCut, one of the Candlekeep Mysteries authors has gone public with complaints about how their adventure was edited.

Book of Cylinders is one of the adventures in the book. It was written by Graeme Barber (who goes by the usernames PanzerLion and PoCGamer on social media).

Barber was caught by surprise when he found out what the final adventure looked like. The adventure was reduced by about a third, and his playable race -- the Grippli -- was cut. Additionally, WotC inserted some terminology that he considered to be colonialist, which is one of the things they were ostensibly trying to avoid by recruiting a diverse team of authors for the book.

His complaints also reference the lack of communication during the editing process, and how he did public interviews unknowingly talking about elements of an adventure which no longer existed.

"I wrote for [Candlekeep Mysteries], the recent [D&D] release. Things went sideways. The key issues were that the bulk of the lore and a lot of the cultural information that made my adventure "mine" were stripped out. And this was done without any interaction with me, leaving me holding the bag as I misled the public on the contents and aspects of my adventure. Yes, it was work-for-hire freelance writing, but the whole purpose was to bring in fresh voices and new perspectives.

So, when I read my adventure, this happened. This was effectively the shock phase of it all.

Then I moved onto processing what had happened. ~1300 words cut, and without the cut lore, the gravity of the adventure, and its connections to things are gravely watered down. Also "primitive" was inserted.

Then the aftermath of it all. The adventure that came out was a watered down version of what went in, that didn't reflect me anymore as a writer or creator. Which flew in the face of the spirit of the project as had been explained to me.

So then I wrote. Things don't change unless people know what's up and can engage with things in a prepared way. So I broke down the process of writing for Wizards I'd experienced, and developed some rules that can be used to avoid what happened to me."

He recounts his experiences in two blog posts:

• What happened? Writing for Wizards Part 1
• What Happened? Writing for Wizards Part 2

The author later added "Wizards owns all the material sent in, and does not publish unedited adventures on the DM Guild, so there will be no "PanzerCut". I have respectfully requested that my name be removed from future printings. "

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Welcome to the English language. It's a trash fire.

And yes, there are formal bodies that discuss style changes based on the changes in the way language is used, including when people ask that certain words not be used. The Associated Press Stylebook committee, for one, regularly updates the standards for its book, which is used in most US newsrooms (and is influential in all of them).

We've been through this before and it's never stopped as long as you've been alive. Depending on how old you are, you may have lived through two to five different ways that Black and African American people preferred to be referred to as. There are certainly people who decide they don't want to honor that, but most people agree that it's a harmless change worth honoring.

Likewise, how the disabled prefer to be referred to, terms they'd like us not to use for people with mental disabilities, and so on.

You can certainly choose to ignore these requests -- I think we all have a grandparent who does -- but when a commercial enterprise decides that a significant portion of their customer base would prefer they respond to changing times, being mad at them for switching over, even if only for purely commercial reasons, is a bit silly.

Unless you are very unusual, your English language usage has changed repeatedly throughout your life. If you made all those other changes, is there a good reason to not honor these requests now?

Careful, people are going to see that remark about grandparents and start accusing you of ageism.

You're exactly on point, of course. Language evolves. The only constant is change, especially in something as fluid as language. Complaining about not being able to use the word "primitive" to describe other cultures is similar to someone complaining that no one ever uses "tubular" anymore. Words fall into and out of favor, and the context of who says them is often important. There's a reason why it is not socially acceptable for white people to use the n-word, why "queer" is typically not okay to be said unless by someone who is LGBTQ+, and why "retard" is considered a pejorative to those with mental disabilities and conditions (I mean no offense by any of these and am merely listing examples. My apologies if anyone is offended).

People who don't follow the norms of socially acceptable nomenclature are typically called out for this, which is how language evolves. Old terms become outdated and more or less "taboo", and new terms come to replace them. Complaining about not being able to use old terms is yelling at the tide.

 

[Mistwell]

If you aren’t going to read the thread (I don’t blame you, it’s long and moving fast), you should at least read Panzer’s blog posts. They elaborate on the issue pretty well, and make it clear that the use of “primitive” is really only one small part of the overall issue. It’s just getting a lot of focus in this thread because a lot of people are very protective of words that get deemed insensitive.

I agree his two blog entries are helpful. A whole lot of his issues are about editing.

 

[Umbran]

Mod Note:

This thread is not producing discussion of value to the community - it is producing insults. Thread closed.